Old West Downs Society – Memories of the Tindall Era, 1922-1954

From P.L.J. Groves, 1935-1938

1. W.H. Ledgard: One of the most sarcastic of men. I remember him reading out an essay of mine and I think he put me off writing for good; it affected my Army career very much.

2. D.H-Griffith: A remarkable man with whom I kept up a friendship for the last 10 years of his life.

3. Brown’s Hotel, W1: Where we used to meet if we came down from the North – I think it helped homesick boys, as parents did not come on to Waterloo Station.

4. Scouting: Love/hate relationship, and arguments with DH-G.

5. Mr D.N. Asterley (school walks): A nasty master, who took us on a 6 mile walk at top speed, and all-round points were ‘dished out’ to all boys who could not keep up.

6. Madame de Coutouly: A sadistic French mistress. She used to hit one’s hand with a sharp ruler. Luckily I was quite good at French.

7. Mrs Simpson (& Duke of Windsor): I remember singing rather rude tunes about her as it was headline news at the time! (Not relevant to WD, I’m sorry).

8. Chivvy: A super game, which I enjoyed more every time I played it.

9. Swimming: As I had a bad ear, I was not allowed to swim at all. This I found very frustrating.

10. David Rose (master): who used to converse in French in the mornings (he was fluent in several languages) and his famous phrase “Stop that nasty rude grinning noise.” A great character.

Peter Groves